Max Holden came to Llanview in 1987 and as soon as he got there, he was in a love triangle with two women Tina Lord Roberts and Gabrielle Medina. Max decided he wanted Tina. They were going to get married, but during the wedding Tina said Cord Roberts name instead of Max's. Max relized Cord was the only man for Tina, and called off the wedding.
When Gabrielle heard that Max and Tina were going to get married, Gabrielle went after Max's brother, Steve Holden. After Steve was hit over the head and went into a coma, Gabrielle seduced Max when he was drunk. They became inseperable. Steve was later killed by an exploding wedding cake. Later in 1989, Max had a relationship going with an actress, Megan Gordon. That relationship soon ended when Max said under oath that he still loved Gabrielle.
In 1990, Max was shot by some people that had kidnapped Al, Max's son. As Max was about to die, Gabrielle swore to God that she'd give her life to the church if God would let Max live. By some miracle, Max recovered. Gabrielle went to the convent, but Max soon rescued her from there and their relationship continued. Max and Gabrielle planed to get married, but Max was involved in a car crash and was thought to be dead, burned beyond recognition. Gabrielle mourned his death, but another miracle happened, Max was really still alive. His face was scarred horrabley by the fire though.
Soon enough Max returned, but with a new face and a new name, Matt Kingsley. Max won Gabrielle's heart again. When Max at last told Gabrielle who he was, they got married. Max divorced Gabrielle after he found a video of her making love with a priest named Tony Vallone.
Max now was after Lee Ann Demerest. It didn't last long, though, when Lee Ann went for for Kevin Buchanan instead. Max left town and returned a few months later. When he came back, Max met two new women who he loved. The first was Blair Daimler Buchanan. The other Luna Moody. Max and Luna went to Atlantic City and won a whole lot of money. Max kept trying not to think of Blair. Max soon married Luna. The next year Luna gave birth to twins Leslie and Frank. Max's life was perfect, but then Luna was killed by a Llanview gang member.
In 1996, Max discovered that his son, Frankie was deaf. Just when he thought it coudn't get worse, Maggie Carpenter arrived in town. Max started to have romantic fellings for Maggie, but Maggie was a nun. Max and Maggie tried to forget about their feelings towards each other, but they couldn't. Maggie renounced her vows and they could finally be together. There was a warehouse that Max wanted, but he didn't get because Maggie bought it to use for her clown school. To try to convince Maggie to sell him the warehouse, Max broke the boiler, but instead of flooding the cellar as he intended, he accidentaly set the building on fire. When Maggie found out what Max had done, Maggie left town. About a year later Max, was together with Blair again, but that didn't last long.
Max then became involed with Kelly Cramer, but he still loved Blair and when Blair found out about Max's aneurysm, the two decided to scam Kelly out of cash by having Max marry her. It didn't work when Kelly left Max at the altar for Joey Buchanan. Max's next scam was to pass himself off as Asa and Renee's long lost son!
Max and Blair continued their scheme and managed to convince Asa and Renee that Max was the long-lost Buchanan heir. Blair continued to worry about the affects of Max's aneurysm, especially after he collapsed at The Palace. Blair began to question Ben to get more information about the treatment of aneurysms while Asa warned Max to stay away from Blair.
In September 1999 Asa and Renee were stunned when Max and Blair announced that they were husband and wife. Blair and Max thought their scheme was going smoothly, until Esther Hoffman suddenly arrived in Llanview. Esther was the one woman who knew the truth -- Max wasn't Asa and Renee's son!
Max and Blair thought their scheme might come to a crashing halt when Esther Hoffman arrived in town demanding one million dollars in exchange for her continued silence. When Max and Blair couldn't raise the money, Esther offered to sell Sam the information she said would destroy Asa. Sam gave Esther a check for one million dollars, but she choked to death on an olive in her martini before telling Sam that Max wasn't Asa's son. Max and Blair were relieved to narrowly escape being exposed as frauds, but their happiness was short lived when they realized that Skye knew the truth that Max wasn't the Buchanan heir.
Skye kept Max's secret, but in November Renee made the heartbreaking discovery that Max had been lying about being her son and she confronted him about it. Max confessed the truth to Renee, but insisted that Blair hadn't been in on his scheme. Max was genuinely sorry about duping Renee and after she stormed off in anger, Max collapsed from his aneurysm. Max was rushed to the hospital and Ben was the only qualified person to perform his surgery. Asa was certain that Ben would kill Max and he barged into the operating room, but was thrown out. Max survived the surgery, but ended up in a coma and Asa vowed revenge on Ben.
As Max remained comatose, Renee confronted Blair with the truth and said she knew that Blair had been Max's partner in the con. Saving her own neck, Blair denied Renee's accusation and begged her not to tell Asa the truth while blaming everything on Max, who had actually heard Blair's betrayal as he wasn't as comatose as everyone believed. Privately, Blair apologized to a "comatose" Max for selling him out. A short time later, everyone was thrilled when Max opened his eyes, but he started exhibiting some very strange behavior.
In an effort to protect himself, Max fooled everyone into thinking he had suffered permanent brain damage after coming out of his coma. Blair was devastated by this and was truly beside herself with worry for Max. Still having feelings for Max, Renee told Blair that she wouldn't tell Asa that Max wasn't his son. Max still had real feelings for Blair as well, but was no longer able to trust her. Max bided his time with his crazy act and had no idea that Skye had discovered that he was faking his condition.
Max told Blair that he no longer trusted her, although Blair made it clear that she still loved her husband and just wanted the "old" Max back. Blair urged Max to try and convince Asa to end the feud between the Buchanans and Rappaports, but Max refused. Max was also falling into Skye's clutches and he made love to her in an effort to keep his secrets from being exposed.
Max continued his affair with Skye behind Blair's back in order to keep her from revealing the truth about his scam. During this time, Max also continued with his ruse of being brain damaged. Max had a tough time juggling these two women and his charade was almost uncovered when everyone ended up at The Palace together. To save his own skin, Max pretended to have one of his episodes and entered the restaurant stark naked! Shortly thereafter, Blair overheard Skye telling Ben about her and Max's affair. Skye thought Max had real feelings for her and was crushed when she overheard him voice his undying love or Blair. An angry Skye then told Ben that Max was faking his brain damage and also said that Max was not the real Buchanan heir.
Max was desperate to find Ben after learning that Skye had told him that Max was faking his brain damage and wasn't the real Buchanan heir. Meanwhile, Ben had already gone to confront Asa, who suffered a heart attack. Max arrived at the stables and begged Ben to save Asa. When Ben still hesitated, Max admitted that Ben was Asa and Renee's son! Ben, however, didn't tell anyone that he was Asa's son because he truly didn't want Asa as a father. Ben told Max to go on pretending to be the Buchanan heir and Max was happy to do so.
Max, however, still had Skye and Blair to contend with. Hoping to keep Skye quiet, Max asked her to marry him. After seeing a kiss between Max and Skye, Blair confronted Skye in her hotel room. Blair hid when Max arrived and learned that he had been faking his brain damage. Blair was furious and wanted revenge! Max warned Blair to be loyal to the Buchanans, but she was sick and tired of Asa and Max's machinations against Sam and his family.
Max and Blair did reconcile, but he then asked Skye to move back into the mansion. Finally, Blair gave Max an ultimatum and forced him to choose between her and Skye. When Max refused to kick Skye out of the mansion, Blair walked out on him.
Max remained loyal to Asa and ingratiated himself to the old man by doing his best to destroy the entire "Rappadavidson" clan. Max and Blair reconciled once again and even decided to try and have a baby together. Although Skye tried to win Max back, he made it clear that Blair was the woman for him.
Max thought he and Blair were a solid team, until he saw proof of her betrayal. Earlier, Blair had hired a computer expert to create a virus exposing Max as a fraud when she set out on a course of revenge after learning of his and Skye's affair. After reconciling with Max, Blair had a change of heart and turned to Todd for help in destroying the virus. Blair thought she was in the clear until Max saw the virus exposing him as a fake on his computer screen. Furious over her betrayal, Max kicked Blair out of Asa's mansion. Soon thereafter, Max was back in Skye's bed!
Blair was devastated when Max ended their relationship and she started exhibiting some very odd behavior. In an act of desperation, Blair shot Max in the back. Todd then came upon the scene and convinced Blair not to call the police and promised that he would protect her. To that end, Todd planted the gun Blair had used to shoot Max in Skye's room at the inn. Skye was later arrested for shooting Max and was crushed when Max doubted her innocence.
Max was stunned when Blair told him about her plans to re-marry Todd. In an effort to force Blair's hand, Max agreed to give her a large settlement so she could marry Todd sooner rather than later.
Max learned that Skye had been released from jail after passing her lie detector test, but Skye wanted nothing to do with Max when he tried to apologize to her. Eventually, Skye forgave Max for doubting her innocence and they teamed up to get the goods on Todd and Blair.
To get Todd and Blair to turn on eachother, Max and Skye gave Blair sleeping pills. Then Max got in bed with Blair to make it look like they had slept together behind Todd's back. Skye then loured Todd up to Blair's hotel room, and when Todd found them he flipt out. When Blair woke up she didn't know about anything.
The next week Max and Skye went to Todd and Blair's wedding where in the middle of the wedding Todd turned on Blair, and told the truth. He told everyone that Blair was the one who shot Max. Max and Skye were thrilled, because Skye was finally cleared of the charges. Before the wedding was over Todd also revealed to everyone that Max wasn't actually Asa and Renee's child. Todd then told everyone that Ben was the true Buchanan heir. Asa had a mild heart attack. Later, Asa told Max that he never wanted to see him again, and that he was going to press charges against him, but Max wouldn't let him. Max blackmailed Asa, and said that if Asa pressed charges then he was going to turn him in for putting out a hit on Ben.
Skye later dumped Max, and moved to Port Charles(General Hospital) to find her real father. Max refused to leave the Buchanan mansion which made Asa very mad. Since Asa was not able to press charges, he made a plan to get back at Max for conning him all this time. Renee and Asa got a divorce.
Later that year Blair found out that she was pregnant. At first is was a scam to get Max to drop the charges for shooting him, but later she found out that she was really pregnant. Max and Blair weren't happy about the baby, but Max decided he couldn't let Blair go to prison. Not long after Blair found out that the baby wasn't Max's, it was Todd's. Because of Blair's hate for Todd, she didn't tell anyone except Kelly the truth.
Gabrielle returned to Llanview with Al, who was now grown up. Gabrielle was very made at Max for not taking care of Al and her after she was released from jail. In a plan to get back at Max, Gabrielle and Asa married. Asa also legally adopted Al. Max was furious at them for doing this to him.
After, an incedent at the court, Blair was sentenced to St. Anne's sanitarium until she was found fit to leave. Right now, Max is trying to help Blair out witht the baby. He still doesn't know it's not his. He is also trying to make Al think that he is a good dad.